1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document management apparatus, a document management method, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for performing a print setting on a document.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as the informational society has become more and more sophisticated, it is widely performed to centrally manage electronic data and a paper document generated with a word processor application in a document management system.
Furthermore, a conventional method has been discussed for allowing a user to easily reprint a document by storing a print setting such as a bookbinding setting in a document so that the document can be more easily reutilized. The print setting is instruction information issued to a printer driver. More specifically, the print setting indicates a setting item to be set with respect to functions of a printer.
The above-described conventional method cannot store the print setting in an application document. That is, the document setting, such as paper size of the document, can be stored in an application document, but a bookbinding setting, such as setting for 2-in-1 printing, setting for stapling, and setting for punching, which are functions of a printer, cannot be stored in an application document.
In the case where a print setting cannot be stored in an application document as described above, it becomes necessary for a user to perform the above-described setting every time the user executes printing.
On the other hand, a document that can store a print setting can be easily reutilized because a user can easily reprint the document with the same print setting stored therein.
In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-308200 discusses a method for increasing the usability of a document that can store a print setting by allowing a user to visually and easily verify a print setting by using a thumbnail.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-120041 discusses a method for converting document data into print data according to a specific print setting referred to with a setting icon for the specific print setting set on a specific printing apparatus in the case where it is detected that a user has drag-and-dropped the print setting icon onto a document file icon. Thus, the conventional method transmits a print job for printing the print data to the specific printing apparatus.
However, the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-308200 increases only the usability of a document itself. Therefore, in the case where a plurality of documents is managed in a document management system, it is difficult to increase the usability of the plurality of documents in the case of using the documents in association with one another.
More specifically, for example, according to the above-described conventional methods, a print setting that has been visually verified by the user cannot be set to another document. Furthermore, the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-120041 can apply to a document a predetermined bookbinding setting only. Accordingly, with the above-described conventional method, it is difficult to flexibly apply a print setting to a document.
Furthermore, with the above-described conventional method, it is difficult to allow the user to readily verify the print setting to be applied or reutilize the document to which the print setting has been applied.